The Small Business Project: Made-to-order label brings inclusive, sustainable bras to women

Monday, 15 December 2025

The Small Business Project is a series that shines the spotlight on Kiwi small businesses doing interesting and unusual things in their industries.

Wellington professional Rosie Fresen, 25, has always dabbled in bra-making, but it wasn’t until she started working at Trade and Enterprise that she took the leap of faith to set up her own business. Just over four months and 80 orders in, Fresen tells Aimee Shaw she is working to balance profits and doing good for women.

What has your venture set out to achieve?

We are an ethical lingerie business, making to order based in Wellington. We're sustainable because we're made to order, but it also means we can cover a really huge size range, inclusive and made for everybody. We go from a New Zealand size six to 30, and A to a double G.

We launched in July, and I'd come from a space of custom bra making. I wanted to bring comfortable bras to more people. When Nisa shut down, it felt like such a loss and a gap in the market, so maybe now is a good time to start, so with the help of my friends who modelled for me and helped me build my website.

We get an average of five orders a week. We're growing slowly, but we're getting great feedback from all of our orders. I make the orders in my little studio in Northland, which used to be my partner's music space.

Do you have a background in textiles and fashion?

No, I'm actually an accountant by trade, and I now work for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. I dabbled in a tiny bit of custom bra making.

How much time and money have you invested?

About $3000 towards buying a good spare sewing machine and buying big lots of fabric so that we could get materials at wholesale. We wanted to get involved in Black Friday and Christmas hype, but not in the overconsumption way.

We were looking for a way to do something that would give back, have an impact, but also be niche to what we do. Every woman needs a good bra, so for every full price bra that's bought between my birthday and my granny Valerie's birthday - because our brand is named after her because she gave me my sewing machine - we gifted a bra to Wellington Woman's House. To remember somebody and do something in their memory is a really good way to kind of honour them.

I lost a friend and her mum to domestic violence about seven or eight years ago, a really horrific story, and it inspired me to keep an eye on the safe spaces for women around Wellington, and the work that's done there. Although that happened in the UK, it has stayed with me.

What’s the biggest challenge your business is facing?

Having the money to be able to buy all the materials wholesale. That's probably the most difficult thing to do because they're so expensive. When I buy a roll of material, I'm eating pasta for the week. Getting our name out there is also really hard, and marketing is just a minefield.

What’s the biggest issue impacting your industry?

People have less disposable income, especially in Wellington.

What’s next for Valerie?

A lot of our focus is getting our name out there and getting a bit of growth for the New Year. One of our goals for next year is to expand to swimwear. We're also looking to see if we can do some fun campaigns and some one-off bras too. We've got a long standing partnership with Wellington Women's House, so once our campaign finishes, we'll look at teaching sewing lessons there.

In three years’ time you will be …

I want all women to have good, ethical clothing options, and we want Valerie to be a really big part of that.

What’s one thing you wish you’d known before starting the business?

I was aware of that going into business was going to be hard, but I didn't realise that I would be working around the clock. I’ve got so entrenched in the business because I’m so passionate about it. I thought I'd be connected, but I didn't realise how much it would become like my baby.

At the start it took me three hours to make one bra. But now, with each one it takes me just under one hour; I've got so much faster, better and more efficient.

Most helpful piece of advice you have ever received?

Just start. My Grandad used to call me and ask why I wasn’t running the world of bras yet. I always had a long list of worries and reasons why it wasn’t the right time to start. But now that I’m running the business, I’ve realised most of those fears never happened, and the ones that did, I learned to handle.

If you would like your business to feature in The Small Business Project, email Aimee Shaw at aimee.shaw@stuff.co.nz